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STREAM BIOASSESSMENTS AND HOW TAXONOMIC RESOLUTION AFFECTS OUR VIEW OF THE WORLD: AN EXAMPLE FROM THE MID-ATLANTIC HIGHLANDS
Citation:
Waite, I. R., D J. Klemm, D P. Larsen, AND A. T. Herlihy. STREAM BIOASSESSMENTS AND HOW TAXONOMIC RESOLUTION AFFECTS OUR VIEW OF THE WORLD: AN EXAMPLE FROM THE MID-ATLANTIC HIGHLANDS. Presented at North American Benthological Society, Duluth, MN, May 25-28, 1999.
Description:
During late spring 1993-1995, the USEPA's Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program (EMAP) sampled wadeable streams in the mid-Atlantic region of the U.S. for a variety of physical, chemical, and biological indicators of environmental condition. A representative set of about 450 study sites was selected. At each site, macroinvertebrates were collected from nine equidistant transects along the study reach using a modified kicknet. Macroinvertebrates from riffles and pools were composited separately for the site yielding over 850 samples, and each composite sample was enumerated using a 300-organism count. The database includes approximately 1100 taxa in 200 families. Percent similarity and ordination analyses were used to evaluate patterns among the insect assemblages from multiple ecoregions at differing levels of taxonomic resolution. Using a subset of data, percent similarity among ecoregion classes showed no differences among family, genus, and species (lowest taxon) level identification. However, ordination of genus or species level identification produced greater spread of sites than family level along a gradient of stream size. These data reveal the importance of the added information from genus or species level identification when comparing among sites.